2012-04-18

The Living Doll "Trend"

Sometimes, when I'm really bored and I have nothing to do I'll mess around on Google News and type in various things. Today I happened to search news relating to Lolita fashion. This very interesting article popped up and I wanted to share it with all of you:

Every young girl loves her dolls as a child; but not every girl wants to look like those beloved dolls. However, a bizarre and potentially dangerous trend sweeping the Internet has teenagers gaining online fame because they resemble living dolls.

If you haven't heard of Dakota Rose (Dakotakoti) or Venus Palermo (Venus Angelic), these are two internet sensations that you need to check out. Both girls are under 18 and regularly update Youtube with videos about how to achieve perfect curls or doll-like makeup. Venus actually dresses in a Sweet Lolita style for many of her videos and is also a fan of Gyaru fashion.

To me, it all seems like harmless fun. Girls playing around with their image and creating something artistic and cute. I don't see any overt sexualization in these girls nor do they seem the type to attract pedophiles any more than other girls on the internet.

The mainstream media feels very differently about what these girls are doing. They call it dangerous. They think there's something wrong with looking like a doll or desiring to be that cute. Read the article....

Venus Angelic

Dakota Rose

What is your take on this new "trend"? Do you think it's potentially dangerous and harmful for young girls? Or do you think the media is blowing it out of proportion?

Yeah, I read that article about a week ago. '' The Lolita-style does not only over-sexualize young girls, but it also invites predators.'' and this got me so angry. Special the ''invites'' part, it's just an other way of saying Lolitas (or any girls) are asking for it. I could be walking naked in high heel in the street and it still doesn't give anybody the right to touch me. And as if a paedophile would be attracted to a gowned girl in lacy frills, this misconception about paedophilia freaks me out completely. It's the equivalent of saying that age play could solve the child abuse problem. As a victim of that problem, I disgusted by people who assume age play could be an alternative to child rape.

I do think the case of Lena-Rose Blondeau is a bit disturbing, when I saw the pictures for the first time I thought it was a bit shocking. I know the fashion industry is obsess with the ever young look, but a 10 year old modelling like that is borderline indecent. Since she is a kid I do thing this can be associated with over sexualization of children.

As for the Venus and Angelic, I don't really care for their tutorials and am not incline too look like them but I don't think anything there are doing is ''dangerous'' or ''provoking/troubling''. They are old enough to know about sex and they can decide accordingly what they want to do with their image and body.

Hmm, this really intrigued me. I guess I think the media is taking it a little far... as long as these young girls aren't messing up their health for sake of doll-like beauty, I'm okay with it. The fact that they're so young makes me worry about the whole pressure-of-society eating them alive, however.

I can see how the "living doll" trend can easily sexually objectify young girls. It sound cute but by referring to them as "dolls" you might as well be saying they're not human. Dolls are beautiful and meant to be adored. They are meant for others to play with without having any feelings or thoughts of their own. They are just objects. These girls are people and not objects, and while their ability to blur the lines between reality and a living doll seems romantic, many other people will just see them for the later; they ar just there for our amusement and to do what we want with them.

As a fan of certain fashions that are similar to this trend, the idea of looking like dolls does not mean that people will treat us as such. Because the point is to look like a doll, not be a stiff unmoving Barbie. Also, styles like lolita and this trend aim to look like an expensive doll. One that would be cherished and not thrown around like a piece of plastic. Even those who collect Barbies treat them well.